Retrospective - "Married... with Children"

I've never seen the cast reject the show, other than Bearse and even she doesn't reject it completely. Sony claims the entire cast is attached to the upcoming animated revival.

You’re a tentpole of the new Fox Network.

I still love it that it was between Hope Davis and Christina Applegate for Kelly Bundy.

I still watch it on the YouTube. Some of the Pop Culture references are dated (like they always become) but overall I still enjoy watching it. Of the six originals Faustino was the only one is was familiar with at the time. I had seen him in a couple guest star roles in other series. The originals were all great in their roles. I started loosing interest when they brought in the side characters, except Griff.

The show was gaining its momentum seasons 1 and 2.

Seasons 3, 4 and 1/2 of season 5 were excellent.

The second half of season 5 and the rest of the time on air were unfunny shitfests.

[quote]The decor was delightfully white trash

My mother had the same sofa in her living room that the Bundys had.

I grew up with this show. Fucking hilarious, and so, so mean.

I also don't consider it misogynistic at all. Al and Bud and Jefferson were just as derided as Peg and Kelly and Marcy. Nobody on the show was likable or good, a bunch of selfish schmos to directly counteract the sugary "feel-good" sitcoms of the 80s, and some of the same era. I always thought this was meant as the anti-Full House.

[quote]I always thought this was meant as the anti-Full House.

It was meant as the anti-Cosby Show.

Seasons 1-5 were great, with 2-4 being the gold standard. I do sometimes cringe at how Al and Peg were relatively normal and actually (GASP!) semi-nice to each other in season 1. Back then, Peg actually cooked and did laundry, and Al would willingly give her gifts and even refused to cheat on her with a beautiful woman. Season 2 was when it really got its legs and they became the trashy ne'er-do-wells we all know and love. It was fascinating seeing Amanda Bearse's transition from feminine to butch as the years went on, and equally her character from mousy and stuck-up to a sex-crazed sugar mama to Jefferson.

[quote]I still love it that it was between Hope Davis and Christina Applegate for Kelly Bundy.

The original pilot had Tina Caspary as Kelly and a blond kid as Bud.

I enjoyed it. I miss that era. Every ridiculous thing they made fun of that was just starting to show up in the culture, is now status quo in blue states and totally in the media. A bunch of joyless, SJW fun police. Participation trophies, fat is beautiful, no human is illegal, trans/non-binary, etc. *Vomit*

Am I the only person who would’ve gladly had a threesome with Kelly and Bud?

We see you, Trumptard R12, and you are not welcome here.

I don't recall an episode where they skewered pompous blowhards like R12. Did I miss something?

They were always making fun of hillbillies on MWC, so they did, in fact, come for R12’s ilk.

Xavier the only Mexican ever made me moist

didn't and don't understand this humor

Bearse always had a very butch energy, I thought, regardless of her outward appearance. There's nothing wrong with that, I'm just amused by the clueless straight guys for whom she was masturbatory fodder circa "Fright Night."

MWC was a "fuck you" to all of the awful, saccharine family sitcoms that dominated the 80s. Those shows are all unwatchable now.

Kids, kids, kids... both Conservative and Liberal organizations protested "Married with Children" as the decline of western civilization.

Remember there have been several time when y'all played on the same team against the American people.

That show was a riot ! It was a time when everyone could laugh at themselves and other not in this repressed puritan sick time we live in now. Lighten up you freakin "vitims of everything " !!!!!

Karen Black's son Hunter Carson played Bud Bundy in the first pilot.

I, too, found the first five seasons to be great. Seasons 6-8 were rough. But by season 9 they had started to regain their mojo and the last three years were pretty funny. It was a rare case of a show that jumped the shark only to get a second wind.

Season 7 is the worst. The addition of that kid seemed to be a very desperate move, and the whole tone of the show was off. And you can tell the writers quickly regretted that decision, as the kid was gone halfway through that year.

Classic.

[quote]Today, virtually the entire cast publicly rejects the show, and more or less apologizes for being a part of it.

No they haven’t. lol. Put down the pipe. Every one of them still loves it. Christina just stated, as did Katey and Amanda. What’s the point of making up shit?

The show was a big fuck you to the Reagan family values 80s. Its satire at its best!

Anyone remember the late 6'8" Nick Oleson? He was in an episode of this and there's this scene in the movie theater where he sits down on Bud (who is too small for him to even notice). I wanted him to sit on me so badly!

^Yes, that’s from season 7, the episode where a pre-Buffy David Boreanaz played Kelly’s boyfriend. That big guy was hot. I could feel him sitting on me!

Just a note. Logo is airing a MwC marathon unedited with limited commercials.

It was a groundbreaking show when it came on, and it served a purpose, which was to deflate the portrayal of the idealized (or at least unrealistically pleasant and affluent) sitcom TV families of the '80s. Its working title was "Not the Cosbys."

You had a loser dad who peaked in high school, a slatternly mother, and two teenage kids who acted like teenage kids (sadistic, materalistic, sex-crazed). This was 18 months before Roseanne, two years before The Simpsons.

It was a lot closer to the real American middle class than any other family on TV. Not that it was some noble realistic effort, but it totally lacked pretension. That was a big deal back then.

Isn't Ed O'Neill widely rumored to be gay himself?

Goooooooooooooooooooooooooo Bundy

Sad that Divine died before she could play Peggy's mother - that would have been great

[quote] you can tell the writers quickly regretted that decision, as the kid was gone halfway through that year.

But he did later reappear

OP, I was also shocked by Ed O'Neill's comments about Amanda Bearse, especially because at the time he did that interview, he was starring in Modern Family as the dad of a gay man. You'd think he'd be more open-minded. But he came off as a complete homophobe. In that interview, he also makes some very ageist remarks about a female network exec who demanded that a misogynistic joke be removed from a script.

I think the actors are backing away from the show. Even Katey Sagal finally described the show as misogynistic in an interview, when she previously denied it. (The actors still appreciate the experience and their relationships with each other...except for O'Neill / Bearse.) Overweight women were punchlines, just their for Al to degrade them, as if they didn't even deserve to be alive.

The only thing positive I can say about the show is its treatment of gay characters. In one episode, Peg takes dancing lessons and meets a man in class who becomes her dancing partner. The man's husband shows up at Al's house and relays his suspicion that their partners are cheating with each other. When this gay man shows him to be both good at sports and a great cook, Al seriously considers dating him. Then he helps the man get his partner back. In another episode, Amanda Bearse plays both Marcy and Marcy's lesbian cousin, who is treated well by the other characters. It kind of makes up for that early season joke where Peggy and Marcy are deciding what to do with the spare room in Marcy's house. Marcy suggests that she can turn the room into a gym and let other neighborhood women use it. Then Peggy warns Marcy not to invite those two women in the brown house who call themselves sisters. If the writers knew Bearse was gay at that time, then that was an insensitive line in the script.

r35 this whole "reappraisal" bullshit really is starting to fuck me off. Capsule it mark it with whatever labels you want but don't start another fig leaf hiding shit. We sre ADULTS and have the ability to make our own choices or is that no longer something that we cand do without some governmental monitoring.

And the OP has hardly written this post with an open mind, judging the language employed.

She should go back and hide in her bedroom with her Debbie Gibson posters for safety, fucking tramp.

r33 He was quite bitter and wanted to get out of the drag. Not sure he would have...

MwC suffered from flanderization especially with Kelly... sure, hairspray and pesticides kill brain cells but she was better as the bad girl rocker slut that had a brain (like her brother) but no interest of applying it (go feminism!). Marcy was just as bad. There was a lot of material to work within a moderate yuppie sexpot that also tried to be trad wife frau would do anything, anything, for her bank and constantly veering from the left to the right. She lean to the right when it came to The Bundys but was starkly moderate Democrat in contrast to libertarian right AL.

While Steve seemed libertarian left. It's a pity he didn't stay on the show. Jefferson to me was like David Leisure on Empty Nest/Golden Girls... unnecessary. I know, he was supposed to be the male equivalent Peggy and turn her world upside down by being a grifting scumbug that can't actually leave her because he finds himself strangely attracted to her and he allows her to explore her sexuality and learn to love his sleaze. But he was out of place on the show. . . same with the young footballer, though his college girlfriend would have been interesting and gave him an interesting ally, especially if it was like he gets injuried just before he's drafted and instead he becomes the peggy clone, while she drops out just shy of graduation and takes up working at the shoe store with Al.

They lost Bud in his teen years but his character came back around with college, the family spending his funds, the interactions with the librarian, and becoming a Marcy-like acolyte that is a thorn in his family's but especially Al's side.

It's a pity they didn't consider a divorce/separation between Al & Peggy sooner, like around the time of the introduction of Seven. . . and did an extended arc on that... force into the modern age than just being a less slutty Mrs. Roper and him out of the Archie-lite stereotype. to reel all the flanderizing back in and give them both a bit more depth. . . to take it from slapstick or the live action cartoon it was becoming back to it's black comedy roots.

MOOOOOOOOOO!

"Oh Al, you have the sex drive of a stone!"

So why did David Faustino's career go straight down the shitter after MwC?

r39 I think yes, he would look to broaden his opportunities but it might have been more difficult than now. We had a drag queen in the UK who was at the same level as Divine in terms of natitional fame, Lily Savage. He move onto TV presenting and radio as his own persona and is still very successful and popular .

The rest of your answer I'll read later as it now New Years Day and there's a lot there to mull over.

Because MWC was the show that made Fox, as its primary cash cow, the cast made BBT bank decades earlier. O'Neil made close to 500k pet episode the last seasons. Katy came close with 300k. Nobody ever needed to work again.

Yeah, it was a massive moneymaker for Fox and the cast until the last minute.

They did 11 seasons and had been renewed for a 12th, which only didn't happen because of a principal cast member (can't recall who, maybe Ed O'Neill).

r44 wow

r40 i will strangle you and when you turn the shade of blue that is satisfactory to you, you say moo

MWC was set to be Divine's transition to mainstream stardom—he was cast as Peg's Uncle Otto before he died.

I used to jerk off thinking of Bud jerking off in the basement with Jefferson.

r46, and those were 22 episode seasons.

I never understood the premise of Al always having a wallet full of cash. He was a broke ass loser shoe salesman in a dead mall. There is no way he was realistically supporting a very high maintenance wife, kids, house payment, taxes, food, and everything else on his pitiful salary. His shitty car was the only realistic thing on the show. If they had lived in a single wide trailer I could have bought it. Any two story house in Chicago? Nah, no way.

r42 bad career and social choices. He once got into a fight with Leonardo DiCaprio (during his rapper phase and before Leo crossed into mega stardom), which set off a feud between tv kids and wannabe film, and most of the surrounding people became more successful. so, you see a bit of distancing from tvland while the budding film crowd went mega. He took a lot of bad roles, turned down potentially good roles. However, he did consistently work. I think he was holding out for another tv series. He also could have benefitted from more training but it's difficult to convince any actor to study after coming off a successful series. And he is/was a cult nut; quirky christian variety, although, close to enough scientologists there were always rumours that he was one.

And Faustino learned what most members of the luck club learn, when you have FU money,

1) The Roseanne corollary: you only have to do what you want.

2) The Jim Parsons Corollary: if you really never learned to act, you can always cast yourself in things you produce.

3) The Katy Segal Corollary: You learn to act.

David Faustino had a feud with Leonardo DiCaprio? Interesting. Jay R Ferguson who was mentioned in the Conners threads was a friend of Leo's and part of the Pussy Posse. David Faustino's rapping was no worse than Brian Austin Green's rap album and David Silver was totally a wigger. At least David had a sense of humor about it. 90210 tried to play that as cool.

I used to watch the show. It was funny, if crude, and I always thought Ed O'Neill was hot. Eventually I found it disturbing that Al's fantasies involved nubile young blonde women, and his daughter was a nubile young blonde woman.

Not just nubile young blonde women. You should be more open minded.

Remember when all Fox programming was considered bottom of the barrel and tacky?

Fox was The CW of the 80s until The X-Files.

Watching it for the first time in years.

The way they wrote off Steve was so odd. He didn't get a big blowup with Marcy.

The whole scenario of Al not wanting to have sex with Peg never made any sense no matter how much they tried to explain it. Peg was the kind of woman with whom straight guys would want to have sex, and Al was no prude because he went to strip clubs and read porno magazines.

Men get tired of fucking beautiful women every day.

What I'm finding unbelievable in my rewatch is that Marcy and Steve would be friends with the Bundys. Obviously their dynamic is an important part of the show, but it makes 0 sense that Marcy would want anything to do with any of them, including Peg. She'd have moved within 6 months, or at least installed an incredibly high fence.

R61....it was a sitcom. Like Gilligans Island, why didnt the Professor know how to repair the ship? Because if he did the show would by over after 2 episodes.

R62 obviously. And I mentioned that. But Marcy liking Peg is a bit of a WTF

Deep down, Marcy is kind of more than a degenerate than Peg is, which we gradually learn over the years as the show goes on. Steve wasn’t nearly the prude he presented on the outside, either. I also think they got a thrill out of being “better” than the Bundys. They were always rubbing it in about their highfalutin lives and careers.

I always thought Steve would be wild in bed.

"The whole scenario of Al not wanting to have sex with Peg never made any sense no matter how much they tried to explain it."

You've obviously never been married or in a long term relationship. Even in the best of them, sex becomes boring after a while, and for a poor schlub like Al Bundy, sex is just another item in a long list of boring "chores" that have to be done: get up in the a.m., go to a dead end job making chump change, driving a 20 year old car he bought used and on which he is still making payments, then coming home to a wife who doesn't work, cook, clean, wash, iron or parent and sleeps all day, a daughter who is an idiot and an unrepentant slut, and a son. who while extremely bright, otherwise is a complete and total loser (like father, like son). In such a situation, it's quite easy to see why someone wouldn't be interested in sex.

And as Charlie Sheen once said on "Two and a Half Men," for every beautiful hot babe out there, there's a guy who is tired of banging her.

He was, based on little hints they dropped in the dialogue. Marcy was definitely satisfied.